Vehicular information provision apparatus

ABSTRACT

An information provision apparatus of the present invention includes a stop detector to detect a stop of a vehicle; a display unit to display various information; and a control unit to control the display unit to display a plurality of display contents in a manner that two successive contents of information differ with each other while the vehicle is standing at the temporal stop. When the vehicle is caught in a traffic congestion to stop temporarily, the driver of the vehicle is entertained by plural contents of the information appearing on the display unit for his/her diversion.

CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION

This application is based on and claims the benefit of priority ofJapanese Patent Application No. 2007-19396 filed on Jan. 30, 2007, thedisclosure of which is incorporated herein by reference.

FIELD OF THE DISCLOSURE

The present disclosure generally relates to an information provisionapparatus for use in a vehicle.

BACKGROUND INFORMATION

In recent years, a technique for preventing uneasiness of a driver in atraffic congestion due to slower and/or stopped traffic in spite of atraffic light being turned to green is provided, for example, inJapanese patent document JP-A-2005-222241. That is, the disclosure inthe above patent application illustrates a configuration that preventsthe uneasiness of the driver who does not know why traffic is slower orstopped.

In the above disclosure, a head vehicle in the traffic congestioncaptures an image of the front area and transmits the image to the rearvehicles in the traffic congestion, thereby enabling the rear vehiclesto view the situation of the congestion. In this manner, the situationof the congestion such as a gridlocked intersection condition can beviewed in the rear vehicles for preventing the uneasiness of the driversin the rear vehicles.

In this case, the situation presented as an image eases the drivers inthe rear vehicles to wait until the congestion cause is resolved byremembering similar situations. However, when the image of theintersection does not explain the cause of the congestion, theuneasiness of the driver will not be resolved. Further, the repeatedprovision of the intersection image may bore the driver, thereby leadingto a non-satisfaction of the driver.

SUMMARY OF THE DISCLOSURE

In view of the above and other problems, the present invention providesan apparatus that prevents the driver to feel the uneasiness due to atemporal stop of the vehicle in a traffic congestion or the like byfeeding the driver with information.

The apparatus of the present includes a stop detection unit capable ofdetecting a temporal stop of a vehicle, a display unit capable ofdisplaying various information to be viewed by an occupant of thevehicle, and a control unit capable of serially feeding the display unitwith different information in an ever-changing manner while the vehicleis temporarily stopping. The apparatus of the present invention thusprovides information in different categories for the driver of thevehicle when the vehicle stops due to a traffic congestion, therebyhaving a good time of diversion and being eased from theuncomfortableness. Further, the information fed in an ever-changingmanner, that is, information fed in a manner that avoids successiveprovision of information in the same category, allow the driver to paytoo much attention for the information on the display unit, therebyenabling the driver to resume the driving operation without lingeringdistraction left on the provided information.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

Other objects, features and advantages of the present invention willbecome more apparent from the following detailed description made withreference to the accompanying drawings, in which:

FIG. 1 shows a block diagram of an information provision apparatus in anembodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 2 shows a diagram of vehicle stop time illustrated in associationwith vehicle speed;

FIG. 3 shows an illustration of a vehicle stop due to a red light of atraffic signal;

FIG. 4 shows an illustration of a vehicle stop due to a trafficcongestion;

FIG. 5 shows a flowchart of an information provision process by theinformation provision apparatus;

FIGS. 6A to 6C show illustrations of information database andinformation provision sequence including long time information and shorttime information;

FIG. 7 shows an illustration of information provided on a displayscreen;

FIG. 8 shows another illustration of information provided on the displayscreen;

FIG. 9 shows yet another illustration of information provided on thedisplay screen;

FIG. 10 shows an illustration of information provided at last in theinformation provision sequence on the display screen; and

FIG. 11 shows another illustration of information provided at last inthe information provision sequence on the display screen.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

One embodiment of the present invention is explained as follows whilereferring to the drawing. First, FIG. 1 is a total configuration of aninformation provision apparatus 1 for use in a vehicle in the presentembodiment. The information provision apparatus 1 is intended to becarried by the vehicles such as automobiles as shown in FIG. 1, andthree sensing systems, that is, an external information sensing system2, an inside information sensing system 3, vehicle information sensingsystem 4. In addition, the information provision apparatus 1 consistsmainly of an arithmetic unit (i.e., a control unit in conceptuallanguage) 5, and the arithmetic unit 5 is connected to three sensingsystems 2, 3, 4 as well as a personal information accumulation device 6,a display unit 7 and a voice-output device 8.

The external information sensing system 2 consists of an external camera9 and an in-vehicle outside communications equipment 10. The externalcamera 9 is installed at an inside or outside of the vehicle compartmentof the subject vehicle for imaging a front image of the subject vehicle.The in-vehicle outside communications equipment 10 is an equipment forroad-vehicle-communication and/or vehicle to vehicle communications, andacquires, from road-side infrastructure, traffic light information thatincludes signal states (that is, a red light (stop signal), a greenlight (proceed signal), a yellow light (caution signal)) of a road-sidedevice installed in the forward crossings of the subject vehicle, timeof each signal state, a position of the road-side device (longitude andlatitude) and the like.

In addition, the in-vehicle outside communications equipment 10 acquirestraffic congestion information from a traffic information center. Thetraffic congestion information includes a position (a longitude and alatitude) of the congestion section of the traffic congestion occurringahead of the subject vehicle, a length of the traffic congestionsection, a passage expectation time of the traffic congestion sectionand the like. Furthermore, the in-vehicle outside communicationsequipment 10 transmits and receives various information between theinformation center outside of the subject vehicle, and variousinformation can also be transmitted and received between surroundingvehicles around the subject vehicle.

The inside information sensing system 3 mainly consists of an internalcamera 11 and an eye/speech analysis device (i.e., a driver conditiondetector in conceptual language) 12. The internal camera 11 is installedin an appointed position in the compartment of the subject vehicle forimaging drive's face image in the subject vehicle. The eye/speechanalysis device 12 estimates the eyes direction (by using XYZ coordinatehaving the sitting position of the vehicle driver defined as the originwith the X-axis aligned with vehicle's front-rear direction, the Y-axisin the lateral direction and the Z-axis in the vertical direction) ofthe vehicle driver, the driving state of the vehicle driver, anatmosphere in the compartment of the subject vehicle based on theanalysis (a sound recognition result) of the sound of the vehicle driverand passengers from a voice-input device (not illustrated) as well asthe driver's face image input from the camera 11.

The driving state of the driver is represented as an awakening degree,feelings of the vehicle driver, a degree of carelessness and the like,in this case. The awakening degree of the vehicle driver is measured andestimated based on the number of blinks and the speed of the blinks ofthe vehicle driver derived from the face image of the vehicle driver.The feelings of the driver is estimated from the face image (the degreeof opening of lips and eyes) of the vehicle driver, the volume of thevoice, the words (e.g., vocabulary) as well as the tone (i.e.,highness/lowness of frequency) of the driver's voice. In addition, thecarelessness of the vehicle driver is estimated from the degree ofchange of the eyes direction of the vehicle driver.

In addition, because the atmosphere in the compartment is affected bythe number of people in the vehicle, the number of people in the subjectvehicle is considered. For example, when the driver is an only occupantof the subject vehicle, the atmosphere (e.g., quietness, strain,liveliness and the like) in the compartment of the vehicle is estimatedfrom the driving state of the vehicle driver. On the other hand, whenthe driver is accompanied by other occupants in the subject vehicle, theatmosphere (quietness, strain, liveliness) in the vehicle is estimatedfrom a conversation or lack of conversation, the laughing/angry voice orthe like in the conversation, the words (e.g., vocabulary) of theoccupants.

The vehicle information sensing system 4 consists of a steering anglesensor 13, a brake pedal manipulation variable detection sensor (i.e.,brakes sensor in the following) 14, an accelerator pedal manipulationvariable detection sensor (an accelerator sensor in the following) 15and a navigation system 16. The steering angle sensor 13 is a sensordetecting the steering angle (i.e., the angle of steer of the subjectvehicle from a neutral position of the steering wheel that is defined asthe steering position when the vehicle is traveling straight) of thesteering wheel of the subject vehicle. The brakes sensor 14 is thesensor detecting a quantity of pressing of the brake pedal by thevehicle driver, and the accelerator sensor 15 is a sensor detecting aquantity of pressing of the accelerator pedal by the vehicle driver. Thedetecting signal output from these sensors 13, 14, 15 is provided forthe arithmetic unit 5.

The navigation system 16 consists of a well known type of a vehicleposition detector, an operation switch group, a map data storage unit, adisplay unit and the like (not illustrated), and outputs, under controlof an instruction from the arithmetic unit 5, various informationprocessed therein and information stored in the map data storage unit tothe arithmetic unit 5.

The personal information accumulation device 6 accumulates personalinformation such as general information (a full name, age, anoccupation, sex, married/single distinction, having children and thelike) as well as information about a personal hobby/idea. Morepractically, the information of the personal hobby/idea is classified ascategories such as music, sports, movies, news, television programs,shopping, restaurants, leisure activities, theme parks, and the like,and lists the contents that suits the preferred hobby/idea of the driverin each of the categories (for example, in a “music” category, a genre(classic, jazz, popular songs or the like), a title, a name of theartist and the like). The personal information accumulation device 6outputs the personal information having the general information and theinformation about the hobby/idea in response to an instruction from thearithmetic unit 5. In addition, the personal information in the personalinformation accumulation device 6 is updated by the arithmetic unit 5appropriately in a timely manner, and is accumulated in an appendingmanner.

Furthermore, in the personal information accumulation device 6, adatabase which accumulates the driving operation (e.g., an operation ofa steering wheel, a brake, an accelerator and the like) of the vehicledriver detected by the vehicle information sensing system 4 isinstalled. The update, addition and the like of the data of the databaseis performed by the arithmetic unit 5 appropriately.

The display unit 7 is, for example, formed by a liquid crystal display,and is disposed at a position that is viewable by the vehicle driver andother occupants of the vehicle. The voice-output device 8 includes anamplifier (not illustrated), a speaker installed appropriately in thevehicle compartment.

The arithmetic unit 5 includes functional blocks of a halt calculationdepartment (i.e., a stop detector in conceptual language) 17, a scenepresumption department 18, a state estimation department (i.e., adriver's condition detector, a condition determiner in conceptuallanguage) 19, an information filtering department 20, an individualadaptation department 21, an information processing department 22, adisplay control department 23 and a sound control department 24.

The halt calculation department 17 calculates a stop time (i.e., a haltin the following) when the subject vehicle stops by the stop factorssuch as the stop signal (a red light) of an existing road-side device (atraffic signal) ahead of the subject vehicle, the stops of the frontvehicle due to the traffic congestion by the concentration of trafficand the like. When the subject vehicle stops by the above-described stopfactor as shown in FIG. 2, the halt calculation department 17 calculatesa halt Xs as the time from a stop start time ts of the subject vehicleto a stop end time te at which a start of the subject vehicle is enableddue to a resolution of the stop factor of the current stop.

The halt Xs is calculated by respectively different calculation methodswhen the subject vehicle stops due to the stop signal of the road-sidedevice, and when the subject vehicle stops due to the stop of the frontvehicle in the traffic congestion ahead of the subject vehicle. Thecalculation methods of the halt Xs is explained in the following.

FIG. 3 shows a situation in which the subject vehicle stops at the stopsignal of the road-side device. In this situation, the traffic lightinformation of the road-side device is acquired through the in-vehicleoutside communications equipment 10, and, by referring to the length oftime of the stop signal included in the acquired traffic lightinformation, a true stop signal time between the stop start time of thesubject vehicle and the time when the stop signal is removed iscalculated. The true stop signal time is included in the halt Xs.

When the subject vehicle is at the top of the traffic that is stopped atthe stop signal of the road-side device, the true stop signal time isidentical to the halt Xs. However, as shown in FIG. 3, if the subjectvehicle stops at the tail of the traffic, that is, if there are otherstopping vehicles between the traffic light and the subject vehicle whenthe traffic is stopped at the stop signal, the subject vehicle is notput in a start-able state at a lift of the stop signal as long as thestopping front vehicles do not start from the stopping position.

Therefore, for handling this kind of situation, a required departuretime per vehicle is set in advance, and the required departure time isincluded in the halt Xs together with the true stop signal time in thecalculation. In addition, when there are plural vehicles between theroad-side device and the subject vehicle as shown in FIG. 3, the numberof vehicles in front of the subject vehicle is estimated based on thedistance L to the road-side device (or to the stop line at the foot ofthe road-side device), and a total departure time derived from therequired departure time multiplied by the estimated number of thevehicles is included in the halt Xs together with the true stop signaltime.

The distance L between the stop signal of the road-side device and thesubject vehicle can be calculated, in this case, from a current position(latitude/longitude) of the subject acquired from the navigation system16 and the position (latitude/longitude) of the road-side deviceincluded in the traffic light information acquired through thein-vehicle outside communications equipment 10. The position of theroad-side device may also be grasped by referring to the map data of thenavigation system 16, and the distance L may be acquired from theposition of the road-side device and a current position of the subjectvehicle. Further, by using communication between vehicles, the number ofvehicles in front of the subject vehicle toward the road-side device mayby directly acquired from the other vehicles through the in-vehicleoutside communications equipment 10.

FIG. 4 shows a situation of the traffic congestion where the subjectvehicle is stopping due to the stop of the other vehicles in front ofthe subject vehicle. First, the traffic congestion information fromtraffic information center is referred to in such a situation fordetermining whether the subject vehicle is located in the trafficcongestion section. Then, if the subject vehicle is located at thetraffic congestion section as a result of the above determination, thetotal departure time required for the front vehicles (i.e., stoppingvehicles) stopping in a series is calculated to be used as the halt Xs(i.e., included in the halt Xs). The number of the stopping vehicles isestimated from a distance L between a top stopping vehicle and thesubject vehicle. Thus, the total departure time is calculated bymultiplying the required departure time per vehicle by the estimatednumber of the stopping vehicles.

In addition, the distance L between the top stopping vehicle and thesubject vehicle may be acquired from outside of the subject vehiclethrough the in-vehicle outside communications equipment 10. Further, byusing communication between vehicles, the number of vehicles in front ofthe subject vehicle toward the road-side device may by directly acquiredfrom the other vehicles through the in-vehicle outside communicationsequipment 10.

In addition, the scene presumption department 18 estimates, from thedriving state of the vehicle driver estimated by the eye/speech analysisdevice 12 as well as an estimation result of the atmosphere in thecompartment of the subject vehicle, the condition/circumstance of thedriver of the subject vehicle. That is, for example, when there is noco-occupant in the vehicle, the scene presumption department 18estimates the condition of the driver who is driving alone as aconcentrated driving condition, a careless driving condition, a tensedriving condition or the like, based on the number of the occupants inthe subject vehicle and the atmosphere in the compartment (quietness,strain, liveliness or the like). Further, when there is a co-occupant inthe vehicle, the driver's condition is estimated as a co-occupantaffected driving condition such as being involved in a conversation orin listening a music with the co-occupant, having the co-occupant in asleeping condition or the like.

The state estimation department 19 is equipped with a first functionthat determines whether the driving operation (a steering operation, abrake operation, an accelerator operation or the like) of the vehicledriver detected by the vehicle information sensing system 4 is different(i.e., diverted) substantially from the driving operation of the vehicledriver accumulated in the database in the personal informationaccumulation device 6 (i.e., from the normal driving operation) for apurpose of determining (estimating) whether the driver's current emotion(i.e., condition) is different from a usual condition (i.e., the normalcondition). The determination by the first function is employed as oneof predetermined criteria for control determination.

Furthermore, the state estimation department 19 is equipped with asecond function that reads feelings (a state) of the vehicle driver frombiological information such as the voice, expression, head movement, eyedirection, and the like of the vehicle driver acquired by the eye/speechanalysis device 12, for a purpose of determining (i.e., estimating)whether the current driver's current condition is different from thenormal condition. The second function is also employed as one ofpredetermined criteria for control determination.

The information filtering department 20 acquires information (offer-ableinformation) that can be offered in subject vehicle from the outsideinformation center through the in-vehicle outside communicationsequipment 10, and the acquired information is memorized in aninformation server (not illustrated). The information filteringdepartment 20 filters and extracts, from the offer-able informationmemorized in the server, the information that is in accordance with thepersonal information (the general information as well as the informationabout a hobby/idea as stated above) being input from the individualadaptation department 21, that is, preferred information of the driver.The offer-able information memorized in the information server isaccompanied by identification information for use in the informationextraction, and the filtering department 20 extracts the offer-ableinformation by checking agreement of the identification information andthe personal information.

Then, the information processing department 22 is used to elect(acquire) the information that is suitable for the condition of thedriver of the subject vehicle estimated by the scene estimationdepartment 18 from the extracted offer-able information extracted by theinformation filtering department 20 (i.e., the preferred information ofthe vehicle driver). Further, the elected information is provided forthe driver who is brought to a temporal stop at the stop signal, intraffic congestion or the like, thereby easing the driver in a course ofguiding the driver's attention to the information that it is offered inassociation with the stop factor that has been causing the uncomfortablefeeling of the driver.

The information processing department 22 processes, by employing atechnique of natural language processing and the like, the electedinformation described above to have a playback time that issubstantially same as the halt Xs calculated by the halt calculationdepartment 17. That is, in other words, the content of the offer-ableinformation is processed (i.e., edited) so that the informationprovision shall conclude within the halt Xs after a start of theinformation provision at the time of the stop of the subject vehicle, orat the determination of the stop of the subject vehicle. Details of theediting process of the information by the information processingdepartment 22 is described later.

Then, by providing the contents of the edited information for the driverof the subject vehicle, the driver is enabled to look through thecontents of the provided information before starting the subjectvehicle. Therefore, the driver's attention is not left to a lingeringcondition that is partially attracted to the provided information afterthe start of the vehicle. As a result, the driver's attention is easilyfocused on the driving operation, that is, concentration on the drivingoperation is enabled. The information provision apparatus 1 of thepresent embodiment achieves safety of the driving operation after thestart of the vehicle in the above-described manner.

In addition, appearance and arrangement of the information content areadjusted for the viewer (i.e., for an individual driver) by the displaycontrol department 23 after the editing of the information by theinformation processing department 22. Similarly, the sound controldepartment 24 changes the edited information mentioned above for theease of hearing by the individual driver before outputting as a sound.

Processing control of the offer-able information is explained withreference to FIGS. 5 to 11 in the following. First, in step S10 of FIG.5, information from the external information sensing system 2, insideinformation sensing system 3 and vehicle information sensing system 4 iscollected, and the halt Xs of the subject vehicle is calculated by thehalt calculation department 17 in step S20.

In step S30, the condition of the vehicle driver is estimated by thescene presumption department 18, and then, in step S40, the condition(feelings) of the vehicle driver is estimated by the state estimationdepartment 19. In step S50, the personal information of the vehicledriver is acquired by the personal adaptation department 21, and then,in step S60, the offer-able information that agrees with the hobby/ideaof the vehicle driver is extracted by the information filteringdepartment 20. Then, in step S70, the offer-able information extractedin step S60 is further elected and edited by the information processingdepartment 22 for provision to the driver and the co-occupants. In thiscase, the information content is determined by classifying the contentto be provided into categories of long time information and short timeinformation in the first place. More practically, as the long timeinformation, information type (e.g., a television program, a musicpiece, a DVD track and the like) is determined together with theinformation content to be provided, and plural information contents areprepared. Similarly, as the short time information, the information type(e.g., a commercial film, four-frame cartoon, a game and the like) isdetermined together with the information content to be provided, andplural information contents are prepared.

The prepared long time Information A-F and short time information a˜ftogether with last information contents Z, Y, X to be provided are shownin FIG. 6A. These information are memorized in an information databaseprovided in the arithmetic unit 5. Each of the information contents ismentioned later.

Then, in step S80, whether the situation allows the provision of thelong time information is determined by the information processingdepartment 22 based on the driver's condition as well as the feelings ofthe driver, the driving operation and the like. When it is determinedthat the situation allows the provision of the long time information(YES in step S80), the process proceeds to step S90. In step S90, pluralpieces of random information including the long time information such as(a, B, C, b) as exemplarily shown in FIG. 6C is prepared by theinformation processing department 22.

On the other hand, when it is determined that the situation does notallow the provision of the long time information (“NO” in step S80), theprocess proceeds to step S100. In step S100, plural pieces of randominformation including short time information only such as (a, c, d, f,b) as exemplarily shown in FIG. 6B is prepared by the informationprocessing department 22. In addition, the plural pieces of randominformation contents described above (the contents of processing such asa method of electing the information and the like) is mentioned later indetail.

Then, in step S110, the last information contents to be provided such asZ in FIGS. 6B and Y in FIG. 6C is determined. In addition, about thelast information contents to be provided is mentioned later in detail.Then, in step S120, the prepared information is provided for the driverfrom the display control department 23 and sound control department 24.

The information content is explained in the following. First,information registered by the driver while the vehicle is traveling is,for example, prepared and provided. In addition, information calculatedfrom the presence of the occupants, the number of occupants, day of theweek and time of the day (by, for example, using Bayesian theorem) suchas a music piece being listened to, a TV/DVD program being watched, ashop visited previously, a tourist spot and the like are prepared andprovided. Further, for example, Internet registration information suchas gourmet information, travel information, book information and comicinformation is prepared and provided.

Furthermore, the information of the other person downloaded from theInternet for provision such as the stand-up comedy of younger performersand the like is prepared and provided. Furthermore, the information ofthe other person who has watched the same music clip and/or the sametelevision program is prepared and provided. In addition, localinformation such as shop information, tourist spot information, localartist information, local radio information and the like is prepared andprovided.

The short time information is the information that can be displayed inone screen of the display unit 7 (e.g., information to be concluded withone screen, or information whose contents can be understood with onescreen), and the information that can be provided in a short time andwhose contents can be understood in a short time. The short timeinformation is the information mainly formed as a still image, or theinformation of moving picture if it is played in a short time.

The long time information is the information of moving picture, a slideshow, and a scrollable information, that is, the information that takeslonger time to be provided. The last information is the information thatturns driver's attention to the driving operation of the vehicle. Thelast information is, for example, the message and/or the image thatnotifies the driver that the vehicle has to be started in a short timeas shown in FIGS. 10 and 11, or the information completely differentfrom what has been provided to turn the driver's attention to the startof the vehicle, or the information that is meaningless for the driver(e.g., a simple geometrical figure or the like).

When plural information contents are provided in a manner shown in FIGS.6B, 6C, the information contents is controlled so that the same kind ofinformation is not played in succession in the present invention. Inthis manner, the driver's attention is diverted from the providedinformation for a purpose that the driver recovers to his/her senses,thereby turning the driver's attention to the driving operation of thevehicle.

In addition, the information on the display unit 7 is dimmed as timeelapses when plural information contents are displayed (refer to FIGS.6B, 6C) so that the time to start the vehicle is recognized in thepresent embodiment. In this case, when the display intensity of theinformation is dimmed, it is preferably performed in a manner that thebrightness of the display unit 7 is made thinner, in a manner that thecolored displayed is turned to monochrome, or in a manner that thedisplay content is put in occlusion condition.

Furthermore, in the present embodiment, the plural information contentsare joined in a fade-out fade-in manner (refer to FIGS. 6B, 6C). Thelast information to be displayed on the display unit 7 is abruptlydisplayed without fading in to impresses the vehicle driver that thevehicle is starting in a short time.

In the above-described manner, the traffic congestion is detected basedon the vehicle speed, the distance from the front vehicle or the like,the plural information contents such as a four-frame cartoon, news andthe like are provided smoothly one by one in a fade-in fade-out mannerat the temporal stop due to the traffic congestion so that the driver iseased away from unsafe driving. Then, at the end of the informationprovision, for a purpose of notifying the driver that the vehicle has tobe started in a short time, a screen is turned suddenly to a localcommercial film of the driver's preference, news of the day or the like,that is, the content is turned to completely different one from what hasbeen provided to remind the driver of the start of the vehicle in ashort time, to encourage the driver to prepare for the start of thevehicle.

The provision of the information that includes the long time informationis explained with reference to FIGS. 7 to 11 in the following. In thiscase, the driver is a female in her 40s, likes trips as well asshopping. She is assumed to be caught in a situation of stopping at ared light of an intersection.

First, as a sightseeing loving driver, tourist information of a populardestination Beijing is acquired from a travel agency through theInternet, and the Beijing tourist information is displayed on thedisplay unit 7 as shown in FIG. 7 (though a text string is shown in FIG.7, still pictures and/or movies of Beijing tourist information mayactually be displayed).

Then, the commercial film of nearby brand-name store is displayed on thedisplay unit 7 based on the map information as shown in FIG. 8, becausethe vehicle driver likes shopping (though, in FIG. 8, a text string isshown, still images and/or movies from the commercial film of thebrand-name store may actually be displayed). In this case, the locationof the brand-name store is configured to be displayed.

Then, on the display unit 7, the pictures taken in the previous tourstored in the hard disk drive (HDD) is displayed in order as a slideshow as shown in FIG. 9. Then, at last, information to encourage thedriver to start the vehicle is displayed on the display unit 7, that is,information that indicates that the signal has turned to blue isdisplayed as shown in FIG. 10.

In addition, the last information displayed on the display unit 7 may bethe message of “RESUME DRIVING” as shown in FIG. 11. Further, as thelast information, the information may be the one that does not have ameaning, or the information may be the scenery of the current district,the scenery of other district. The information may also be the imageinformation of the map from the navigation system 16. The lastinformation is preferably the one that can be recognized at a glancewithout lingering on the driver's mind. That is, in other words, theinformation is intended to be recognized as the notice of the start ofthe vehicle in a short time.

Furthermore, the last information may be a movie that repeats the samescene or the like. Furthermore, the last information may be an output ofa voice message such as “The signal changes in a short time.” “Start thevehicle right away.” or the like.

Furthermore, in the above embodiment, the road-side device is assumed tobe the traffic signal, the road-side device may be, for example, a radiobeacon, a light beacon or the like that is communicable. In addition,the communication method such as a dedicated short range communication(DSRC), a wireless LAN as well as other types of communication may alsobe employed.

Such changes are regarded within a scope of the present invention.

1. A vehicular information provision apparatus comprising: a stopdetector configured to detect a temporal stop of a vehicle that ishaving a travel; a display unit configured to display variousinformation at a position that is viewable by occupants in the vehicle,the display unit being an in-vehicle display unit; an informationdatabase configured to memorize information organized as long timeinformation and short time information; a control unit configured tocontrol the display unit to display a plurality of display contents in amanner that (a) information contents elected from the database areprocessed to conclude within a stop time of the temporal stop, the stoptime being pre-determined from a stop start time, and (b) two successivecontents of information differ from each other while the vehicle isstanding at the temporal stop detected by the stop detector; and apersonal information accumulation device configured to accumulatepersonal information that at least includes a personal hobby and an ideaof a driver of the vehicle, wherein extraction of the informationcontents is performed according to the personal information of thedriver, and the extracted information contents are then elected from theinformation database and are processed for viewing by the driver.
 2. Thevehicular information provision apparatus of claim 1, wherein thecontrol unit controls the display unit to display a content ofinformation that is self-contained in one screen on the display unit asthe short time information, and controls the display unit to display acontent of information that is not self-contained in one screen as thelong time information.
 3. The vehicular information provision apparatusof claim 2, wherein the control unit controls the display unit to guideattention of the driver to the provided information away from a reasonfor the temporal stop.
 4. The vehicular information provision apparatusof claim 1 further comprising: a driver's condition detector configuredto detect a current driver's condition; and a condition determinerconfigured to determine that the driver is in a usual conditionaccording to the current driver's condition detected by the driver'scondition detector based on a predetermined criterion, wherein, when thedriver is determined to be in the usual condition, the control unitcontrols the display unit according to the driver's condition to displaythe content of information including a content of a predetermined timelength.
 5. The vehicular information provision apparatus of claim 4,wherein a current driver's operation detected as being diverted from ahistory of driver's operation stored in a database is used as one ofpredetermined criteria for determining that the driver's condition isnot normal, and the determination of the driver's condition not beingnormal is used to control the display unit to avoid displayinginformation that includes the content of the predetermined time length.6. The vehicular information provision apparatus of claim 5, wherein theinformation displayed on the display unit is configured to be edited inConsideration of driver's condition.
 7. The vehicular informationprovision apparatus of claim 4, wherein a current driver's operation inassociation with driver's emotion that surfaces as voice tone, facialexpression is detected as being diverted from a history stored in adatabase is used as one of predetermined criteria for determining thatthe driver's condition is not normal, and the determination of thedriver's condition not being normal is used to control the display unitto avoid displaying information that includes the content of thepredetermined time length.
 8. The vehicular information provisionapparatus of claim 7, wherein the information displayed finally on thedisplay unit is the information that indicates that the vehicle isstarting in a short time.
 9. The vehicular information provisionapparatus of claim 1, wherein the information displayed on the displayunit shows a remaining time before the vehicle starts, and thebrightness of the information on the display unit is configured to bedimmed as time elapses.
 10. The vehicular information provisionapparatus of claim 1, wherein the display contents are audio and/orvisual entertainment acquired through an in- vehicle outsidecommunications equipment.
 11. The vehicular information provisionapparatus of claim 1, further comprising a stop time calculation unitconfigured to calculate the stop time of the vehicle.
 12. The vehicularinformation provision apparatus of claim 1, further comprising: acommunications unit configured to acquire traffic light information froma road-side infrastructure, wherein the stop time of the vehicle in thetemporal stop is determined based on the traffic light information. 13.The vehicular information provision apparatus of claim 1, wherein acombination of short time information and long time information areelected from the information database, and the information contentselected from the information database are played back to the driverwithout interruption and have an end of playback which substantiallycoincides with the stop time of the temporal stop.
 14. A vehicularinformation provision apparatus comprising: a stop detector configuredto detect a temporal stop of a vehicle that is having a travel; adisplay unit configured to display various information at a positionthat is viewable by occupants in the vehicle, the display unit being anin-vehicle display unit; an information database configured to memorizeinformation organized as long time information and short timeinformation; a control unit configured to control the display unit todisplay a plurality of information contents in a manner that (a)information contents elected from the information database are processedto conclude within a stop time of the temporal stop, the stop time beingpre- determined from a stop start time, and (b) two successiveinformation contents differ from each other while the vehicle isstanding at the temporal stop; and a personal information accumulationdevice configured to accumulate personal information that at leastincludes a personal hobby and an idea of a driver of the vehicle,wherein extraction of the information contents is performed according tothe personal information of the driver, the extracted informationcontents are then elected from the information database and areprocessed for viewing by the driver, and the information contentdisplayed finally on the display unit is information to prompt a driverof the vehicle to start the vehicle.
 15. The vehicular informationprovision apparatus of claim 14, wherein two successive contents ofinformation except for information displayed finally are seriallydisplayed in a fade-out and fade-in manner between the two successivecontents, and the information displayed finally on the display unit isabruptly displayed without fading- in for providing impression for thedriver that the vehicle is about to start.
 16. The vehicular informationprovision apparatus of claim 14, wherein the display contents are audioand/or visual entertainment acquired through an in-vehicle outsidecommunications equipment.
 17. The vehicular information provisionapparatus of claim 14, wherein the control unit controls the displayunit to display a content of information that is self-contained in onescreen on the display unit as the short time information, and controlsthe display unit to display a content of information that is notself-contained in one screen as the long time information.
 18. Thevehicular information provision apparatus of claim 14, wherein acombination of short time information and long time information areelected from the information database, and the information contentselected from the information database are played back to the driverwithout interruption and have an end of playback which substantiallycoincides with the stop time of the temporal stop.
 19. A vehicularinformation provision apparatus comprising: a stop detector configuredto detect a temporal stop of a vehicle that is having a travel; adisplay unit configured to display various information at a positionthat is viewable by occupants in the vehicle, the display unit being anin-vehicle display unit; an information database configured to memorizeinformation organized as long time information and short timeinformation; a control unit configured to control the display unit todisplay a plurality of display contents in a manner that (a) informationcontents elected from the information database are processed to concludewithin a stop time of the temporal stop, and (b) two successive contentsof information differ from each other while the vehicle is standing atthe temporal stop calculated by a stop detector a stop time calculationunit; a driver's condition detector configured to detect a currentdriver's condition; and a condition determiner configured to determinethat the driver is in a usual condition according to the currentdriver's condition detected by the driver's condition detector based ona predetermined criterion, wherein, when the driver is determined to bein the usual condition, the control unit controls the display unitaccording to the driver's condition to display the content ofinformation including a content of a predetermined time length, whereinthe control unit is configured to further determine the current driver'scondition based on a number of occupants in the vehicle, wherein thecontrol unit is configured to determine whether short time or long timeinformation is to be displayed according to the current driver'scondition.
 20. The vehicular information provision apparatus of claim19, wherein the control unit further determines whether the currentdriver's condition is affected by a condition of a co-occupant in thevehicle based on the number of occupants, includes a co-occupantcondition in determining the current driver's condition and determinesthe current driver's condition to be different, when the currentdriver's condition is determined to be affected by the condition of theco-occupant based on the number of occupants, in comparison to thecurrent driver's condition when the current driver's condition is notdetermined to be affected by the condition of the co-occupant based onthe number of occupants.